Opinion | Features

Enough with the cooking shows already says media trading director Sam Tedesco. The market saturation is not doing anything positive for the ratings.
Like most members of the Australian TV viewing audience, I love a good cooking show. Right now, though, I need a break from high-pressure personality-driven food formats.

In this opinion piece Kevin Fitzsimons argues SBS documentary Go Back to Where You Came From demonstrates how people will accept ideas more readily when they are shown them.
‘People don’t do conceptual,’ was one of the best pieces of advice I received early on in my marketing career.
It took a while for me to grasp the value of the advice and even longer to apply it.

Australia's biggest supermarket is struggling. Steve Jones spoke to industry experts about how Woolworths' marketing strategy has faltered, and whether the brand can revive its fortunes.
When Woolworths chief executive Grant O’Brien fell on his sword last month after another disappointing set of quarterly figures, it surprised no one.
Without a chief marketer following the abrupt dismissal of Tony Phillips – and with several other high profile executives exiting stage left in recent months – it was just another in a long line of senior level departures at the embattled supermarket.

Media commentators not condemning the booing of AFL star Adam Goodes are effectively condoning bullying argues Adam Ferrier.
I have always admired Adam Goodes. Dual Brownlow medallist, premiership player, Australian of the Year, continued good work for indigenous people. He certainly deserves respect. Don’t know if I like him or not though, never met the guy.
However, Alan Jones commented on the issue recently and said the reason Goodes is getting booed is just that, ‘Because they just don’t like the fellow’.
What a damaging thing to say, and surely it’s not as simple as that?

After recently switching to ING Direct Ian Sizer says the current ad campaign for the online bank is seriously making him consider switching back.
When you get an ad appearing every single ad break it can be irritating. Some ads though go way beyond irritating and become so infuriating it can totally bugger up your evening.
That’s what happened to me last weekend when my viewing was interrupted on a regular basis by the latest offering from ING Direct.

While storytelling has become one of adland's biggest buzzwords Rob Lowe argues marketers are failing to make the necessary emotional connections.
I remember first hearing people talk about ‘storytelling’ a few years ago. I never quite understood it then and I still don’t fully understand the term now.
In fact, like many others, I think it’s overused marketing jazz.

Ahead of the launch of Seven's new reality format Restaurant Revolution tonightAngely Grecia crunches the numbers to see what sort of a buzz the show is creating on Twitter.
The Restaurant Revolution - the new foodie reality TV-show that sees ordinary Aussies designing and running their own pop-up restaurant to win a grand prize of $200,000 - is alive and well on social media.

Despite all the hype the news dinosaurs still dominate the plains of online news in Australia argues The New Daily editorial director Bruce Guthrie in an address to the Rural Press Club.
One way or another, as a journalist and editor, I’ve had a front-row seat at the migration of news from print to online over the past 20 years. And whenever I reflect on that sometimes painful, often clumsy process I am reminded of the joke about the man who walks into a bar with a frog sitting on his head.

In this opinion piece Mumbrella's Alex Hayes argues Lexus' new Heartbeat Car stunt will not raise the pulses of ordinary punters.
I have to admit the new 'world first' Lexus 'Heatbeat Car' leaves me cold.
It comes across as technology for technology's sake - they could have achieved the same results with CGI.

In this guest post, Shabaz Hussain wonders what a posh British drink’s surprise social media win at Wimbledon says about sports sponsorship for brands.
According to a recent Brand Intelligence Report from Amobee the brand most associated with The Championships at Wimbledon in 2015 across social and digital is Pimm’s – a traditional cocktail drink that spectators enjoy at the event.
What makes this more interesting is that fact that they were not an official sponsor of The Championships.

With more than $200m of business in play in Australia due to global pitches. But David Angell asks whether swapping partners will achieve much for these multinationals.
Do you watch soap operas? Of course you don’t, you’re all busy executives with crippling workloads.
But I bet most of you can remember them from younger days.

While some of the figures in the latest RECMA rankings are questionable Nic Christensen argues they still provide an interesting insight on the state of the media industry.
There's something about the RECMA numbers that just does not make sense. But when you ask a bunch of agencies to tell you how much they spend every year you're likely to get some very interesting results.
But despite the inconsistencies they are still the best map of media agencyland, are provide insights around the challenges of staff churn, the rise of programmatic and the broader challenge of falling client spend which are actually quite telling.

The way that blogger and influencer outreach is currently being executed is fast becoming unsustainable, and the industry should be worried argues Louisa Claire
When bloggers began sharing the brands they loved and used in their everyday lives, readers found their endorsement authentic and relatable; it came from someone “just like them”. Research found such backing from “real people” was more successful in swaying purchasing decisions than celebrity endorsements, and marketers opened their eyes to a massive opportunity to leverage bloggers’ voices.
The concept of blogger outreach was born.

The jump puts the network even with Australian Radio Network’s Mix106.5, which dropped to 4.8% from 5.2% to see the two networks share the commercial FM wooden spoon.

Paul Jackson, dmg’s group program director told Mumbrella: “The station didn’t exist 10 weeks ago. To capture that sort of attention and bring in 100,000 listeners in cumulative listenership in Sydney, it’s a sensational result.”

The new channel also saw a big jump 18-24 demographic, up 3.3 percentage points from 4.3% to 7.6%.

Jackson said: “Going back to the start we said the audience would come from across the board. We’re playing a superb selection of music, from Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars to music with older appeal. We have appeal right across the board. The older you go with listeners the longer it takes to get them to change the dial.”

The network’s More Music Drive Show, hosted by Byron Webb also saw a jump from 4.9% to 6.0%. The biggest increase in drive across the Sydney market.

It’s a big gap to third place in the commercial FM market where Triple M’s The Grill Team stays in third place on 5.7% down slightly from 5.8%, while Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa are in fourth on 5.4%, down from 5.6%.

The positions set the tone for drive-time where 2Day’s Fifi and Jules maintain top spot, followed by WSFM’s Rob Duckworth, who hangs on to second despite a drop from 8.2% to 7.8%.

Nova’s Mishel, Tim and Marty, static on 7.5%, rounds out the top three as Smoothfm’s Byron Webb pushes ahead of Triple M’s Merrick and the Highway Patrol on 5.5% up from 5.0%.

2GB’s The Alan Jones Breakfast Show remained on top with 18.5%, static on last survey. Likewise, the network maintains its Monday to Sunday dominance, up from 14.9% to 15.2%.

Comments

Bill
7 Aug 12
12:08 pm

Given this is the first survey for smooth, they should be happy with how well the station launch has cut through. They have had really solid audience gains which is a good sign there is interest in the station. Now they just need to convert and they should see some solid numbers in the future

It must be said Kyle just keeps growing. The power of a powerful and skilled broadcaster. Love or hate him, Sydney listens to him. That’s where the clients need to return too. Its no longer a case of damaging the clients brand because they’re on the show, its a case of damaging their product if they are not.

Jack B. Nimble
7 Aug 12
10:34 pm

Do the surveys cover commercial premises or just individual households? A lot of the places I go to are now playing Smooth FM – my doctor and hairdresser have switched to it, so has a local cafe. It’s a pretty ‘safe bet’ for music that most people can listen and not find too loud or offensive, let’s face is, Smooth FM could be the new 2CH!

DS
8 Aug 12
3:32 am

Wow, Bill has been busy. Looks like he made the exact same comment about Smooth FM on Radio Today’s website only 8 minutes before commenting here.

Dave J
8 Aug 12
2:36 pm

Things have changed in radioland when a boss is happy with a low (but increasing) rating after the launch of a new format. In 1976 2GB relaunched itself as a rock music station to compete with 2SM and 2JJ (no FM back then). After just two surveys following the relaunch 2GB bosses scrapped the format, sacked over 50 people and went back to its old format.

It is good to see that radio bosses now acknowledge that Rome wasn’t built in a day and are willing to wait for a new format to bed down before taking any further action.

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